“PETER WAS VERY GOOD AT FEEDBACK. HE WAS A BUSH ENGINEER”
South Australia production line, accompanying the shells down the track, ensuring they received some additional welding, and had their roll cage mounts installed.
Period photos show the bare shells being worked on back in George’s workshop in Queensland (he owns GSA Wholesale Suspension), where the chrome moly cages went in.
There was a host of rally gear fitted, including twin fuel systems, very substantial underbody protection, communication equipment, fire extinguishers, uishers, seats, harnesses and so-on.
As for mechanical spec, ec, the decision was made to go with the e V6 engine, a five-speed manual transmission smission and limited-slip diff. The engines gines were built by the legendary Ian Tate e and George supported the use of the six.
“It was not much slower r than a V8,” he explains, “But the weight distribution was more conducive to rallying. They came together really well.”
“THE DECISION WAS MADE TO GO WITH THE V6. IT WAS NOT MUCH SLOWER”
The transmissions were built at GMH to the team’s specifications, while one of the tricks with setting up the LSD included making sure it was assembled at the right tension. Nevertheless, George reckons the diffs took a terrible pounding in the event and he vividly remembers they managed to change the internals on a rally car, at the Port Hedland stop, in just 18 minutes.
This prototype was out there being thrashed months before the event, with Brock at the wheel. “Peter was very good at feedback,” says George. “He was a bush engineer, and that’s because he started out that way, and he was really good to work with once you knew what he was looking for.” Over the decades, the pair became good friends.
Much of the testing was done on a vast private property near Kilcoy in Queensland. George remembers those times fondly, saying the family who owned it would often come out to see the action, bringing along a picnic for the whole crew. George chuckles at the memory – “I was thinking if this is testing, this is pretty good!”
With Brock bundled onto a flight back home, the crew would then set about working through whatever problems they’d encountered. One had to do with the design of the rear suspension, which was fine for normal use but threatened to crack under rally conditions. That involved working out subtly altered geometry, along with strengthened mounting points and components.
In the end, the cars rode on fully-adjustable suspension, though the ride height was not raised as much as you might expect. “If you go more than 20mmin either direction, the suspension stops working properly,” says George.
The extensive testing covered a host of aspects of the car, sometimes raising issues where apparently minor changes could have a big effect. For example, one of the reasons the spotlamps were located atop the bonnet was so they didn’t interfere with the engine cooling.
Meanwhile, as far as possible, Holden was keen for it not to look too much like a race car, which is why the original bumpers and much of the original trim remained in place.
When it came to the rally, Brock’s event was effectively over after he collided with a stalled competitor hidden in a dust cloud somewhere near Kalgoorlie. “But Peter being Peter, he said ‘you blokes have got to fix this – I’m going on’,” recalls George. In the end it was team-mates Ed Ordynski and Ross Runnalls who took the line honours.
It was only 18 months ago that George was reunited with his old friend the test mule. After sitting in a shed for years, it was in a pretty ordinary state, so he got one of the original 1995 crew to come in and help him put it back together.
George has kept a list of the componentry that was worked on, and it’s comprehensive. You can see the huge effort that has gone into getting the car race-ready again, with everything from fuel injectors through to tailshaft joints coming under the crew’s critical eye.
Perhaps almost as important as the car, is the paperwork. There’s a massive folder of period shots of the car being built and tested – Brock of course features – along with the CAMS log book and Brock’s own competition licences from the period.
George has decided it might be time to let go of the car, now he’s got it back into shape. “I have plenty of other memorabilia,” he explains and figures it would be good to see the car go somewhere where it might be appreciated. It’s coming up for auction through Graysonline over July 26-31.